An omelet and a glass of wine (and bread and salad)

I was on my own for dinner last night, a rather unusual event. I like cooking for myself, although I tend to gravitate towards things like noodles or sandwiches, or interestingly reconstituted leftovers. This time I decided to purposely keep things simple and cook myself an omelet for dinner, something I almost never do when we’re both home.

On the way home from work I talked myself into stopping at the co-op to get a small piece of cheese and a baguette to flesh things out, and when I got home I opened a bottle of white wine, a verdejo from the Spanish wine tasting last week. It was lovely with the faint sourdough taste of the bread.

Short ribs braised in porter

Saturday was chilly, and after a brisk walk by the bay we felt the need of something substantial and warming for dinner. I glanced at my still-pristine copy of All About Braising by Molly Stevens, and found a recipe for Short Ribs Braised in Porter Ale with Maple-Rosemary Glaze. We love short ribs and have made them before with either a red wine braising liquid or a good dollop of Patak’s curry paste, so porter sounded like a good variation. The maple glaze sounded unnecessary and sweet, so I left it off, but I otherwise followed the recipe pretty closely.

Our grocery store sometimes sells both English-style and Flanken-style short ribs - this weekend they only had Flanken-style. For beer we picked out a large bottle of Scuttlebutt Porter from Everett - it’s smooth and rich without any bitterness, and cooked down with no off flavors.

Dinner at Pair

Every once in a while J and I go to concerts at the University of Washington, and are always in search of good places in the area to eat beforehand. Friday night was Pilobolus, and I wanted to try somewhere new. I had heard of Pair, a neighborhood joint featuring small plates and a nice wine selection, when it first opened, but somehow never quite got around to trying it - I don’t think I realized how close it was to the campus.

They don’t take reservations, and traffic was disgusting all over town, so we cut our other errands short and headed there early. Parking was no trouble at all, always an oddity in Seattle. We got there right at 5, claimed a nice table out of the sun, and watched as the place completely filled up over the next hour.

In the garden: farewell autumn

The Japanese maple on the deck had its best fall color year ever. Alas, the windstorm we had recently has taken every leaf off of it. But I can remember it fondly.

Wine tasting: Spanish value wines

Another class at Gretchens, this time a wine tasting featuring Spanish value wines brought by Gary Morris from Unique Wine Company. We were volunteer help in the kitchen this time, but we made sure we got to taste everything! Susan, the class coordinator, made up three courses to go with the six featured wines: an antipasto plate with olives, salami, Tuscan white beans with garlic, a piece of toasted baguette, and a parmesan crisp, an oven beef stew (fantastic) with Caesar salad and another parmesan crisp, and gorgonzola cheesecake crusted with pecans and served with crackers and grapes.

Black pepper chicken curry

Earlier this week, knowing we wouldn’t be eating dinner at home again for a while, I looked at the vegetables lurking in the refrigerator to see what needed using. A bunch of slightly faded Tuscan kale got eaten for breakfast (with a fried egg on top, yum), which left a bag of cute little cauliflowers, slightly spotted with brown, from our last trip to Dunbar Gardens. Cauliflower usually leads to one of two things around here: cauliflower gratin or Indian gingered cauliflower. We wanted to go the gingered route, so I went combing through our multitude of Indian cookbooks to find something to go with it.

Cooking class: autumnal food and wine pairing

 For this class we were paying guests, not volunteers! Watching the quantity of dishes being washed I decided I was OK with this. We just sat back, talked with our tablemates and admired the plates as they arrived. The chef was Jim Kowalski, chef-about-town and employee at the fabulous Breadfarm Bakery in Edison. Wine was chosen by Renee Stark of Noble Wines.

Pot roast enchiladas

This past weekend we helped out at my father’s twice-yearly gallery show. Our main contributions at these events tend to be opening bottles of wine and cooking dinner for anyone who happens to be around. For this one we had already decided to make a pan of enchiladas, since it feeds lots of people and is flexible for staggered servings (there are generally lots of people coming and going). The original intention was to buy some pork, roast or boil it and shred it for the filling, and cover it with a green mole sauce. However, when we arrived the night before the art show, my father had cooked up a large pot roast (with chanterelles and pasta), and we thought - we have shredded meat! And lots of it! So here’s what we did:

My mother hand shredded the leftover beef (a seven-bone roast simmered for four hours with carrots and onions) into a bowl. J cut up an assortment of mildly hot peppers that came from the local farmer’s market, and sauteed them with some small home-grown onions, then dumped it all into the meat and mixed it up a bit.

Cooking class: Northern Italian food & wine

A kitchen store near our house regularly offers cooking classes and wine tastings. We used to occasionally go to these as guests, as we could afford it, but then we discovered the possibility of volunteering in the store as class assistants. Now every couple of weeks or so during the class season we head down to the store after work and start chopping. The level of work required depends heavily on which chef or wine rep is leading the class, and how many people are signed up - classes range from 6 to 26 people. It’s work, but we get to taste the food and the wine, meet local chefs, and cook some things we don’t normally try at home. In return we chop, plate, wash dishes, serve, stuff peppers, debeard mussels, measure flour, and sweep up at the end of the night. It’s a little like getting restaurant experience without getting paid or yelled at.

Risotto and a rainstorm

We have an abundance of squash lying around our house right now. At least one is being saved for our annual Halloween soup (more on that later), but the others are up for grabs -  especially my favorites, the delicatas.

Cook’s Illustrated ran a recipe a couple of years back that we finally tried last winter, and it’s become a favorite - a butternut squash risotto with sage and onions. Delicatas aren’t quite like butternut, but they’re sweet and easy to peel, and work very well in this recipe. Here’s how it worked out on this particular occasion:

First, my wonderful spouse peeled and cut up the squash into 1/2 inch dice for me, reserving the stringy innards and seeds. I heated some olive oil in one of my favorite pans (a lime green Le Creuset saucier) and added the squash in a single layer, left it alone for a few minutes so it browned nicely, then stirred it up and let it cook until just tender. I scooped it into a bowl and set it aside. I then added the squash innards to the pan (it needed a bit more oil) and sauteed them briefly before transferring them to a saucepan and adding a couple cups of chicken broth and a cup of water. The squash-infused broth began simmering away as I started the rice.